The Church Tech's Best Friend

What happens on Sunday morning when your AV gear doesn't work the way it did at the mid-week rehearsal? Time to test your knowledge in troubleshooting. What if you could start troubleshooting via your cell phone?

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There is a reason the first troubleshooting technique in any tech or IT person's tool kit is “turning it off and turning it on again.” The number of times that works is enough to be a little disturbing. The trouble often is that things just didn’t get turned on in the correct order, and sometimes that matters. For example, typically, you want all your destinations on before you start your presentation software. Otherwise, the software tends to have trouble deciding which output goes to which location, and turning it off and on again will fix it. This is a "tech 101" example, but the theory holds beyond the example. Audio equipment can be damaged by being powered up incorrectly, so the choice is obvious if you are deciding between proper start-up and shut-down procedures or a new PA. An easy way to ensure that happens is with a sequenced electrical panel.

If we need to troubleshoot something during the week, instead of driving 40 miles up to our Montgomery County campus, we would remote in, turn stuff on and see what we could do remotely.”

—Marvin Haines, Director of Technology and Production, McClean Bible Church

We talked with Marvin Haines, Director of Technology and Production at McClean Bible Church in the DC area, about his experience with the LynTec RPC System (remote power control). “Stuff gets powered on properly and turned on properly or turned off properly,” he says. “Specifically on the audio side, it brings the front of house equipment up first to ensure it’s stable, and then sequences on the amps to spread out the inrush. Being able to turn stuff on and off in order is very important for us and what we do.” It also reduces the chance of damage from being turned on and off incorrectly, and therefore allows your gear to have a longer life before it needs replacing.

This is an interesting view, given that many technicians, myself included, are trained that once powered on, mission-critical gear stays on. Every traveling show has disproven that philosophy; packing gear up and moving on to the next city requires everything to be powered down. Haines adds, “I know a lot of new industry trends are leaving stuff on a lot more than in the past.” This seems to hold true with churches in a fixed location, but with more churches opening multi sites that are “church in a box,” the opportunity to leave gear powered on isn’t an option.

However, multi-sites and main sites in permanent locations can benefit from the LynTec RPC remote control breaker system, thanks to its new web-enabled control and monitoring capabilities. This is great for production directors overseeing multiple locations. RPC’s expanded interface options (DMX, sACN, HTTP, Telnet, RS-232, or BacNET (optional)) allow users to monitor and control the system remotely, making it easy to not only check the status of your locations via a mobile device, but more importantly, to control them. “So if we need to troubleshoot something during the week, instead of driving 40 miles up to Montgomery County, we would remote in turn stuff on and see what we could do remotely,” says Haines.

Beyond remote locations, just being able to throw breakers without going to the breaker box is a non-trivial perk. No facilities have electrical panels with easy access from the FOH position. They are always located backstage or on the other side of the building. Being able to throw a tripped breaker remotely, via your cell phone, without leaving the production area is a big deal. It will probably make it harder to reach your step goal for the day, but being able to stay at FOH is worth it. Add that to the remote monitoring and anyone looking for a sequenced power solution should be taking a look at the Lyntec RPC.